3 minute read
Croquis:
FOLD, TWIST, TIE
By Ralph Escamillan
Deconstruction as a process of creation.
In my durational performance titled, Croquis, the pencil is the body and the paper a modular canvas—dissecting the desire to imprint and archive oneself into physical space. Central to this work is a garment constructed entirely out of paper, which is recreated for each performance out of a humble material typically used to package products. The garment in Croquis extends the handcrafted techniques explored in my earlier work PIÑA, developed through my collaboration and learning with local weavers in Kalibo, Aklan, Philippines — where I learned how to extract and weave fibers from pineapple leaves.
The construction of this garment began in the summer of 2023 when I created an initial draft of the garment as a resident artist at the Vancouver Art Gallery as part of the Fashion Fictions exhibit. During this time I explored techniques for manipulating paper, and explored the properties of this material both physically and sonically.
This garment can take many forms, but draws inspiration from the historic ball gown skirt, the duality of which has been synonymous with ideas of celebration, femininity and pomp, while also representing a type of confinement and mourning.
The movement in the performance references these aspects, weaving together moments that slowly reveal, with others that express the feeling of breaking free — creating something entirely new while destroying what came before.
This skirt also serves as a tribute to the late Tedd Robinson — a close friend and creative influence whom I connected deeply with before Tedd’s passing in 2022, and who helped inspire the creation of this solo.
Ephemerality is embodied through the ritual of the performance. Performed alongside a hypnotic metronome, the paper’s collisions with the body and floor are amplified— every crinkle in stillness, every tear through motion, becoming part of the choreography. Once the dress is danced in, it is then recycled, and a new dress is built for the next performance—echoing the cycle of creation, death, chaos and rebirth.
Ralph Escamillan is an award-winning Queer artist, choreographer, community leader, and 2nd generation Philippine-Canadian. He is the founder of two non-profits VanVogueJam and FakeKnot, has danced/toured/created with Vancouver-based companies, film and TV, as well as been a beacon for the Ballroom scene on the West Coast of Canada since 2017. His work continues to advocate and create space for artists of color, while also producing and building Queer spaces to inform his work and how he seeks to recontextualize the way dance is created and shared. ralphescamillan.com
Title image credit: Ralph Escamillan © David Cooper
